AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI

Washington: US President Barack Obama has written to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to express a "shared interest" in fighting the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq and Syria, a media report said on Thursday.
The letter was sent in the middle of last month, in which the president tied...

Washington: US President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last month stressing the two countries' shared interest in fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, a media report on Thursday said.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the letter in mid-October said that...

Dubai: A 26-year-old Iranian woman convicted of murdering a man she accused of trying to rape her as a teenager was hanged on Saturday, the official news agency IRNA said, despite international pleas for her life to be spared.
Reyhaneh Jabbari walked to the gallows at dawn on Saturday in Tehran's...

Tehran: Iran's supreme leader on dismissed the value of direct talks with the US, his first comments touching on meetings that officials from the Islamic Republic had with Americans dating back to secret talks that began in 2012.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say over all state matters in Iran,...

New Delhi: India paid a second installment of $550 million in oil dues to Iran on Tuesday under an interim deal that has allowed Tehran access to $4.2 billion in blocked funds globally, two industry sources said.
Asian buyers such as Japan and South Korea have already cleared some of the...

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei agreed on Saturday to pardon or reduce the sentences of 878 people in honour of the Prophet Mohammad's birthday on Sunday, the state news agency IRNA reported.
Last September, some 80 political prisoners were released, including prominent human rights activist and lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, just...

Tehran: An Iranian court has sentenced an actress known for her reformist political activism to 18 months in prison on security charges, newspapers reported in another sign of the underlying tensions between Iran's hardliners and calls for greater openness by new President Hassan Rouhani.
The reports came on Tuesday, a day...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed on Wednesday that his government would never develop nuclear weapons, his strongest signal yet that he may be seeking a diplomatic thaw with the West after decades of acrimony.
In an interview with NBC News days before he travels to New York for a UN appearance,...

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday US intervention in Syria would be "a disaster for the region", the ISNA state news agency reported, as Western powers made plans to hit Damascus over a chemical weapons attack.
After supporting Arab uprisings across the Middle East and north Africa in...

Dubai: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed countries outside the Middle East on Monday for the region's turmoil and the Shi'ite cleric said regional states backing radical Sunni Islamists would be damaged by conflict.
Khamenei, the most powerful man in Iran, made the comments in a meeting with Oman's Sultan...

Dubai: Iran's best known political grandee, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, looms large in the history of the Islamic Republic now registered to run in Iran's presidential election June 2013 he may also get the chance to carve out its future.
Few have wielded such influence in modern Iran as...

Dubai: Facebook banned in Iran due to its use by activists to rally government opponents in 2009 has an unlikely new member: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Launched a few days ago, the Facebook page 'Khamenei.ir' displays photographs of the 73yearold cleric alongside speeches and pronouncements by the man...

Tehran: Iran is ready to show flexibility at nuclear talks to ease Western concerns over its contentious nuclear program, its foreign ministry spokesman said on Saturday, as tensions rise in the standoff between the Islamic Republic, Israel and the West.
The remarks by Ramin Mehmanparast, published by the official IRNA news...

Tehran: In a rare meeting with a nonMuslim dignitary, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday held discussions in Tehran with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on a variety of subjects, including bilateral matters and the tense situation in the region.
Prior to the meeting with 73yearold Khamenei, who holds nearabsolute...

Tehran: A senior official says Iran is willing to continue talks with world powers over its nuclear program until they reach a conclusion.
Ali Akbar Velayati, international adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted on Friday by the semiofficial news agency ISNA.
He said Iran will pursue nuclear...

Tehran: Iran's Supreme Leader warned on Sunday that any Israeli attack would be answered with a "lightning" response by the Islamic Republic and suggested Iran's nuclear program cannot be curtailed by Western sanctions.
The remarks by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei echoed previous hardline positions by Iran, but take on added resonance amid...

Tehran: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the United States and Israel on Thursday not to launch military action against its nuclear sites, saying it would be met with "iron fists", state television reported.
Tension over Iran's nuclear programme has increased since Tuesday when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)...

Tehran: Iran's supreme leader on Sunday hailed the coming withdrawal of US troops from neighbouring Iraq as a "golden" victory.
US President Barack Obama plans to withdraw his 40,000 troops from Iraq by the end of the year after negotiations on keeping some forces there failed, a move some US politicians...

New Delhi: Upset over persistently critical statements by Iran on Jammu and Kashmir, India on Friday summoned its acting Ambassador, telling him that such remarks impinged on the country's territorial integrity.
New Delhi issued a strong demarche to Iran's charge d'affaires Reza Alaei expressing its "deep disappointment" over the remarks, which...

Tehran: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said that Western countries should keep away from Iran's domestic issues, the country's ISNA news agency reported.
"Definitely, you would not be placed inside Iranians' circle of friendship with such hasty comments. Thus, I recommend you to rectify your interventionist stances," said Ahmadinejad while referring...

Cairo: One of Iran's most powerful men may be playing a key role behind closed doors in the country's escalating post election crisis.
Former president and influential cleric Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani has made no public comment since Iran erupted into confrontation between backers of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and reformists...

Tehran: Iran's government threatened harsh action on Saturday if opposition supporters take to the streets again to demand a new election in open defiance of the country's supreme leader.
Websites run by supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi called for street protests at 4 p.m. (1130 GMT) but the candidate...

Tehran: Iran's supreme leader addressed the nation on Friday in his first public comments since opposition supporters flooded Tehran's streets in an unprecedented challenge to the country's ruling clerics.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has already approved the June 12 election results that gave hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a landslide victory,...

Tehran: Protesters set fires and smashed store windows on Sunday in a second day of violence as groups challenging President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's reelection tried to keep pressure on authorities. Antiriot police lashed back and the regime blocked Internet sites used to rally the proreform campaign.
Ahmadinejad dismissed the unrest the...

Tehran: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday told all Iranians to respect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory in a presidential election that his closest challenger described as a "dangerous charade".
Trouble erupted on the streets when Ahmadinejad partisans clashed with about 2,000 supporters of moderate former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi...

Tehran: Iran's supreme leader said Tuesday that "no wise nation" would pursue nuclear weapons, but his country will continue to develop its nuclear program for peaceful purposes.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared to be reacting to suggestions by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Tehran may be withholding information on secret...

Tehran: Iranians voted Friday in elections likely to yield little change: Conservatives and allies of the hardline president are expected to retain control of parliament after many reformists were barred from even running.
As polls opened, state radio urged a strong turnout so that Iranians could present a unified front to...